Dubai: Two men have each been jailed for six months for threatening to kill a businessman if he did not pay them money and do business with them.

The 30-year-old Indian businessman claimed that the British defendants, 52-year-old M.B. and 49-year-old A.M, sent him threatening email messages and made threatening calls when he was at a hotel in the Port Saeed area in June 2011.

The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the defendants of threatening to kill the businessman, S.H, if he refused to buy their merchandise.

“The two accused will be deported following the completion of their punishments,” said presiding judge Ali Attiyah Sa’ad.

S.H. told prosecutors that M.B. was the first to threaten him via email on June 25, 2011.

“He wrote in an email that he had legal and illegal acquaintances that could help him solve the matter. M.B. mentioned in his email that he wanted me to give him money, otherwise he would hurt me and my family. He blackmailed me and threatened to circulate my personal information which he had earlier accessed when he did business with my father. Meanwhile, A.M. sent me an email in which he warned me and asked me to listen to M.B. or face the consequences. They threatened to torture me and my family. While I stayed in the hotel, they threatened me due to the business dispute that we had,” the businessman testified.

Prosecution records cited the defendants as admitting that they sent the threatening emails to the businessman.

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